Greyfriars & New Hope Church Greyfriars & New Hope Church

Sunday 2nd June, 6:30 service, Chris Hall.

We are dead to sin. It no longer has a claim or any power over us. Jesus is alive and so are we. Paul uses baptism to illustrate his point in this passage: as we go under the water we are buried with Him, and we are born to the new life He won for us in His resurrection.

The penalty for sin is death, and as death is defeated so sin has lost its power. We are resurrection people who live in the life that Jesus now lives. There is no going back, Jesus cannot die again and His life is fully to God. We are called to live in that same life.

Sunday 26th May, 9:30 service, Alyssa Carey.

We are made righteous through Jesus. Although we were made sinners through the actions of Adam, we have been justified through Jesus and His obedience to God. There is no depth of sin that grace won’t meet us in as a result. This grace and righteousness ultimately leads us into eternal life.
Righteousness and justification are words that carry a lot of weight and meaning that people might not understand. What are righteousness and justification, and what is the link between them and grace?

Sunday 19th May, 9:30 service, David Walker.

Paul starts this section with a reminder of where we’ve been: that we are all under sin and death which came to us through Adam. Since the fall death has come to all people even before the law was given. But, as many died through Adam, how much more are we saved through Jesus?
We are given the free gift of grace and righteousness which reigns in our lives because of Jesus’s obedience to the cross. He is the new Adam and through the events of His death we see Him undo the curse that was placed on us in Genesis. How might we still think we are under death, when we have actually been won to life? What does it mean for us to receive this free gift?

Sunday 12th May, 9:30 service, Dan Bright.

Sunday 5th May, 6:30 service, Natalie Worsfold.

Would you die for anyone? What is it about someone that means you would die for them?

In Jesus’ death we see the clearest demonstration of love. Although we hadn’t done anything to deserve it, in fact we were enemies of God, Jesus still chose to go to the cross. God’s love for us is so powerful that He could not leave us as enemies but chose to reconcile us to Himself through His blood.

This reconciliation is seen not only in His death on the cross, but in His resurrection. In His death we have died to sin, in His life we have life in all its fullness.

Sunday 28th April, 9:30 service, David Walker.

Paul links Abraham’s faith with hope (an important concept for him) and brings out the truth —Abraham and Sarah were in a hopeless situation when they received the promise of God. Abraham’s faith was profound and its being reckoned to him for righteousness has meaning for all subsequent believers. It is clear that Paul has concluded his basic account of justification and that he is now moving on to the consequences (notice his “Therefore” at the beginning). Justification has results. The justified person has peace and joy, and Paul exults in this. In the process he further emphasizes the importance of the death of the righteous Christ for sinful people. The love of God is behind all this. Paul does not think of God as remote and indifferent but as full of love, and it is from his love that our salvation proceeds.